Fun Facts

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…NOT a dinosaur. That’s right, pterosaurs are not dinosaurs—they’re flying reptiles. Learn more in Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs. Here are some fun facts:

Pterosaurs evolved into dozens of species: Some were as large as an F-16 fighter jet, and others as small as a paper airplane.

More than 150 species of pterosaurs have been discovered in excavations around globe.

Pterosaurs were the first animals after insects to evolve powered flight—not just leaping or gliding but flapping their wings to generate lift and travel through the air.

Although many animals can glide through the air, pterosaurs, birds, and bats are the only vertebrates that have evolved to fly by flapping their wings.

Pterosaurs are close cousins of dinosaurs but evolved on a separate branch of the reptile family tree.

Pterosaurs had fragile bones that preserved poorly, so pterosaur fossils are frequently incomplete.

Pterosaur fossils are also easily damaged when extracted, transported or prepared for study or display.

The first scientist to correctly identify this mysterious creature as a flying reptile was French zoologist Georges Cuvier, in 1809. Cuvier gave it a name: ptéro-dactyle, meaning “wing finger.”

Pterodactylus antiquus was the first flying reptile to be called a “pterodactyl.”

Like birds and most other reptiles, female pterosaurs laid eggs.

By the time it hatched, a pterosaur’s wings were fully formed, and it could probably fly within a short time.

Today, almost all paleontologists agree that pterosaurs were quadrupedal—they walked on all four limbs—based on evidence from fossil tracks.

A pterosaur’s fourth finger was connected to the hand by a roller joint, so the wings could fold like umbrella spokes.

A pterosaur’s wing bones were hollow tubes, with walls no thicker than a playing card.

Pterosaurs had a fuzzy coat and were probably warm-blooded.

Quetzalcoatlus northropi had wings spanning around 33 feet (10 meters) and was about the size of a two-seater plane.

Some pterosaurs had big, sharp teeth clearly suited to stabbing prey. Others had no teeth at all and probably ate fruit. And others showed extreme modifications comparable to a wide range of animals living today, indicating highly specialized diets.

Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org).